I would like to pick the list's intelligence on an issue I have been facing.
CRY approached me this month for a contribution, and I gave them six thousand rupees without very much thought. However, the following points arise: 1. Five days ago, my pay review kicked in, and I can now afford to set aside five thousand rupees a month for charitable donations. I would like to do this. 2. Having done this, I would obviously like to make sure that my donations get the most bang for their buck. This means the efficacy of the charity I am donating to needs to be certain. 3. In addition to the organisational effectiveness of the charity, I also want to discriminate in the type of charities/ projects I donate to. Again, this will be determined by what (I think) leads to the most positive results. So if I have to choose between giving CRY six thousand rupees for supporting mentally handicapped kids, and six thousand rupees for educating slum dweller children in Yeshwanthpur, I would rather give to the education project because while the mentally handicapped kids will remain mentally handicapped, the education project can assist the slum dwellers in getting out of the slums - theoretically. Other people may be able to enlighten me if this is belief is sensible or not. On the same lines, I would rather donate to medical research projects than healthcare projects, primary healthcare than hospices, primary education than tertiary education, and so on. 4. There is also the temporal aspect. Rather than give five thousand rupees a month away now, I could invest it, get a return, and give larger lump sums later. Which in your opinion would make more sense? 5. Point #4 also ties up with how much a particular donation should be. Are large lump sump donations better or worse than regular monthly donations? There would be transaction costs and processing costs involved, but how important are these? This is more about deciding the criteria for donation, and the process for it, than picking any particular charity, though that itself will be important. Would appreciate your inputs on this. ~Aadisht
